1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antigen protein of black-lip pearl oyster egg extract, and a method of quantitative assessment on the reproductive effort of black-lip pearl oyster using an antibody specific thereto.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Black-lip pearl oysters (Pinctada margaritifera) inhabiting over the coral area of the Indo-Pacific are very large in size as compared to other species, and thus can produce significantly larger pearls. Accordingly, production of black pearls through the culture of black-lip pearl oysters becomes one of the most important industries in the South Pacific island states. The annual average production of black-lip pearl oysters reaches 6 M/T (metric ton, US $175,000,000). Such an increase in the production of black pearls causes a rapid increase in the demand of mother of pearl and a decrease in the amount of black-lip pearl oyster resources.
Thus, in the field of the industry of pearl culture in the South Pacific Chuuk Lagoon, it is one of the imminent things to supply mother of pearl stably for the production of black pearls. Recently, in the South Pacific Chuuk Lagoon, a natural seed collection method, in which floating spats discharged from naturally occurred black-lip pearl oysters are collected, has been frequently used as a method for the culture of black-lip pearl oysters. However, it is difficult to obtain spats in an amount sufficient for the culture industry. Under these circumstances, there has been a great need for the production of spats through the introduction of artificial seed production and stable supply of the spats of black-lip pearl oysters. However, the artificial seed production of black-lip pearl oysters has not been accomplished successfully to date because of the lack of the fundamental study of life cycles and reproduction physiology of black-lip pearl oysters. In addition, since the study of the reproduction of Bivalvia distributed over the tropical zone is significantly poor, as compared to the Bivalvia of the temperate zone, information about the strategy of reproduction of tropical Bivalvia or the physiological characteristics thereof is absolutely insufficient.
Therefore, physiological studies of reproduction of mother of pearl for the production of high-quality seeds should be performed in order to control the black-lip pearl oyster resources successfully. Such studies include a qualitative study, such as understanding the annual reproduction cycle of mother of pearl and predicting the breeding season, as well as quantitative determination of eggs and sperms produced from mother of pearl, i.e., determination of reproductive effort or fecundity. Particularly, the study of determination of reproductive effort is poorer than qualitative studies due to the difficulty unique to such determination. This is because most Bivalvia has an ovary containing eggs, which is not separated physically from other organs but is included in the pallial membrane or digestive diverticulum, and the fecundity of Bivalvia reaches several millions or several tens of millions.